1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to interpenetrating blends comprising a branched fractal three dimensional polymer (FPs) species which comprises aromatic recurring units having inert or reactive moieties on the exterior thereof having linear polymeric chains passing through and interpenetrated with the fractal polymer (FP). Another aspect of this invention relates to polymeric composites comprising a polymer matrix having dispersed therein the interpeneting polymeric blends of this invention, and to articles of manufacture formed from said blends and polymeric composites.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Aharoni et al. Macromolecules, Vol. 23, No. 9, pg. 2533 (1990) describes the preparation of rigid and flexible polymeric networks and their gels by the reaction of aromatic diamine monomers (BB monomers) with aromatic or aliphatic diacid monomers (AA monomers). Aharoni, S. M., Macromolecules, Vol. 24, No. 1, pg. 325 (1991 ), discloses that the formation of crosslinked networks takes place between fractal polymers whose surfaces are decorated by A and B reactive groups in about equal amounts and may take place in the absence of all monomeric or low molecular weight species, by the direct reaction of the fractal polymers under appropriate reaction conditions.
When the fractal polymers are made from AB monomers then their exteriors are decorated by mostly one kind of reactive group, either A or B, and may not react with each other to form crosslinked networks. AB monomers are divalent or polyvalent monomeric species containing either one A group and one or more B groups, or, one B group and one or more A groups.
Conceptually similar structures, called starburst or dendrimer polymers are described in Tomalia, et al, Angew, Chem. Intern. Ed. Engl., 29, 138 (1990), U.S. Pat. No. 4,289,872 and Hawker and Frechet, Macromolecules, 23, 4726 (1990). All these are tedious stepwise reactions which require at each growth step the preparation of protected or unreactable groups on the growing substantially aliphatic, branched species.